Method of laying out a data center using a plurality of thermal simulators

Abstract

A method is provided for facilitating installation of one or more electronics racks within a data center. The method includes: placing a plurality of thermal simulators in the data center in a data center layout to establish a thermally simulated data center, each thermal simulator simulating at least one of airflow intake or heated airflow exhaust of a respective electronics rack of a plurality of electronics racks to be installed in the data center; monitoring temperature within the thermally simulated data center at multiple locations, and verifying the data center layout if measured temperatures are within respective acceptable temperature ranges for the data center when containing the plurality of electronics racks; and establishing the plurality of electronics racks within the data center using the verified data center layout, the establishing including at least one of reconfiguring or replacing each thermal simulator with a respective electronics rack.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001]The present invention relates in general to methods for laying out a data center, and more particularly, to methods for laying out and verifying a data center layout using actual thermal simulation of the data center.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002]The power dissipation of integrated circuit chips, and the modules containing the chips, continues to increase in order to achieve increases in processor performance. This trend poses a cooling challenge at both the module and system level. Increased airflow rates are needed to effectively cool high power modules and to limit the temperature of the air that is exhausted into the computer center.[0003]In many large server applications, processors along with their associated electronics (e.g., memory, disk drives, power supplies, etc.) are packaged in removable drawer configurations stacked within a rack or frame. In other cases, the electronics may be in fixed locations within the rack or frame. Typically, the compo...

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Benefits of technology

[0010]FIG. 1 depicts one embodiment of a convent...

Problems solved by technology

This trend poses a cooling challenge at both the module and system level.

However, this approach is becoming problematic at the rack level in the context of a computer installation (e.g., data center).

In such installations not only will the room air conditioning be challenged, but the situation may also result in recirculation problems with some fraction of the “hot” air exiting one rack unit being drawn into the air inlet of the same rack or a nearby rack.

This recirculating flow is often extremely complex in nature, and can lead to significantly higher rack inlet temperatures than expected.

This increase in cooling air temperature may result in components exceeding their allowable operating temperature or in a reduction in long term reliability of the components.

Addressing thermal imbalances within a data center is often an expensive and time consuming operation.

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